Dama (drum)

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Dama is a double-skinned tubular drum played with the hands on both sides of the Garo people in the northeast Indian state of Meghalaya . The dama is only played for certain occasions in ritual music and to accompany dance; it characterizes the large drum orchestra that performs at the height of the annual Wangala harvest festival.

Design and distribution

The word dama appears along with numerous other names for musical instruments in the writings of the Assamese poets Ram Saraswati and Srimat Bhagawad in the 17th century. The court poet of the Ahom king of Garhgaon ( Assam ), Ram Chandra Barpati, lists among other things the percussion instruments ( Sanskrit avanaddha vadya ) dhola , dagar, dama, nagara , kahal, tabala (from tabl ), damra ( damaru ) and in the same century kartala ( cymbal ).

The body consists of a slim, slightly conical tube carved from the trunk of a jackfruit tree . The usual length in the Abeng dialect area is about 113 centimeters, an instrument measures 106 centimeters, although longer lengths of about 150 centimeters and 150 to 180 centimeters can only refer to instruments that can no longer be played on both sides. The fur diameter on the wide side ( bidag ) is 24 centimeters and on the narrow side ( bichok ) 17 centimeters. The skins are made of bovine or water buffalo hide , they are braced against each other with a V-shaped lacing of wide strips of skin ( barar ). The tension engages a strip of skin that runs around on both sides and is looped through incisions on the bent edge of the skin. It consists of several endlessly knotted strips and can be pulled along for tuning.

The drummer hits the skins with outstretched arms and usually both hands at the same time, on special occasions also with sticks. While playing, he sits on a low stool with the drum on his knees across in front of him, at festive events he plays while standing, with the drum hanging horizontally in front of his body on a strap that runs over his left shoulder at hip height.

Such slim and long tubular drums are unusual, in their shape and function they most closely correspond to the Indian double-cone drums , especially the equally slim pung in Manipur . A comparable tubular drum with skin diameters of different sizes is the Bengali khole with a length of 75 centimeters, which is also called Sri khole because of its use in religious music ( kirtan ) ( Sri is a respectful form of address for Hindus).

The Tibetan Burman peoples in the border area with Bhutan , on the other hand, play much larger but shorter cylinder drums. These include the thado kuki, who play the Hruso speakers in Arunachal Pradesh while lying on the ground, and the cylinder drum of the Sherdukps in the local Kameng district. It is carried by one person while two others hit the two skins with sticks.

Style of play

The former s were earlier in the bachelor house nokpante ( Garo language nok, "House" and pante , "unmarried young men") kept standing in the middle of the village could not be entered by women, at least not on the main staircase. This was the cultural meeting point where adult men also met, guests were accommodated and the young people learned to make music. After the British conquest of the Garo highlands in 1872 against the inhabitants who defended themselves with spears, swords ( millam ) and wooden shields ( sepi ), the nokpante gradually disappeared . Today the dama s hang on the walls of the houses.

There are certain cultural restrictions on using the dama ; it is mostly played in the village and is rarely taken to the fields. Their use is limited to the time between the Wangala Festival , which takes place in October / November, and the Agalmaka ceremony, which is held in March after the grass and bamboo areas ( aba ) have been burned down ( jhum ), which is customary in shifting cultivation . Agalmaka includes a chicken sacrifice before the coming sowing to let the rain god become active.

The largest annual festival of the Garo is the three-day Wangala , also known as the “Hundred Drum Festival”, with which the deity Misi Saljong is thanked for the rich harvest. Misi Saljong was the first to teach the Garo to cultivate their land. The festival takes place in several locations, the largest in Asanang Village in Tehsil (sub-district) Ronggram in West Garo Hills District. The main attraction are 100 drum players and far more dancers who travel in groups from the north-east Indian region and Bangladesh . After the Wangala Festival, each family holds a ceremonial rice dinner in their home. The village chief ( sangnakma ) visits each house in turn and cuts open a pumpkin that is offered as an offering. Following this, the women dance an old war preparations dance to the accompaniment of more then s and buffalo horns ( aaduri ).

In addition to these two big annual festivals, there are ceremonies that are not related to agriculture, such as the former war dance Grika , which old men perform with a sword in their right hand and a shield in their left hand to drive away evil spirits. They are accompanied by dama s, occasionally together with the kram , a sacred, double-skinned, long and narrow barrel drum.

Most of the ceremonies include community dances in which men and women take part. The dama takes care of the basic beats, while the humpback gong wrestles and natural trumpets (buffalo horns) create the rhythm. Some group dances and processions are led by the village head, followed by a male kram player. The two leading dama drummers, whose instruments ( dadia ) are tuned to different pitches, play in the second and third rows . The higher sounding dama is called dadigipa , the lower rikkakgipa . They specify a change in dance style through rhythmic changes. Behind it, the other male and female dama drummers play in a row.

The blows on the dama can be heard from a great distance. For folk songs, some dances and nocturnal rituals, the quieter tones of the struck tubular zither chigring are better suited. There are no restrictions on how it can be used, which is why it serves young people as a training instrument on which they can learn the dama game. On the other hand, the nagra , a pot-bellied clay kettle drum played with sticks, is of the greatest religious importance and never leaves the house.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bhartakur, pp 75, 78
  2. ^ Oxford Encyclopaedia, p. 335
  3. ^ Musical instrument, page 1. Williamson Sangma Museum
  4. ↑ Blench, p. 21
  5. ↑ Barthakur, p. 55
  6. ↑ Bigamudre Chaitanya Deva: An Introduction to Indian Music. Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting , Government of India, New Delhi 1981, pp. 39f
  7. ↑ Blench, pp. 20f
  8. ↑ Hundred Drums Wangala Festival of the Garos. hundreddrumswangalafestival.blogspot.de
  9. ^ Tribal Communities of Tripura. National Folklore Support Center (NFSC), Chennai
  10. ^ Oxford Encyclopaedia, p. 335